The Monster in the Sewers
by KleeZeeNex
Summary: At age eight, the turtle brothers are having a boring day. That is, until Leonardo goes missing and Donatello sets out to find him...


Disclaimer: I do not own TMNT.

X x X x X x X

There I sat, thinking up as many insults as I could to throw at my computer. It actually had the nerve to take its own sweet time loading this one simple page of scientific formulas with a few pictures and interactive activities that could explain the process of photosynthesis. So what if the graphics were breathtakingly detailed and precise? It shouldn't be that hard to slap on some information about a bunch of green stuff that absorbs light and gives energy to your spider plant on your front porch. I mean, my eight-year-old brothers and I are green, and it's just that simple. Why are we green? It's because we're flipping turtles, that's why. What's so difficult about that?

Stupid inanimate objects.

Finally, my computer flashed and the screen popped up. With a breath of relief, I brought my three-fingered hand to the mouse and began to direct it. But no sooner had I made a simple move to click when a crash sounded behind me. I jumped, accidentally clicking on the close button. Shoot.

Gritting my teeth, I turned around in my chair to see what had made the sound. Or, more specifically, who was going to get a megabyte of clobbering in the near future for ruining my research. But when my eyes fell on the floor behind me, I saw that my job had already been done for me. I sighed.

"Raph, what are you picking on him about this time?" I asked. Raphael looked up at me from shoving Michelangelo's head into the doorway to my room that Michelangelo and I shared.

Raphael smiled innocently. "Nothing, we're just fooling around." Michelangelo responded with making a face up at him.

But I didn't need Michelangelo's facial expressions to know that Raphael was making that up. The smile gave it away. Raphael's genuine smile was rare, and was hardly ever the result of an innocent wrestling match between him and his little brother. "Oh, Raph, leave him alone. Mikey can only eat the paneling for so long," I said.

Raphael clamped his mouth shut and backed off of Michelangelo, but Michelangelo just remained on the floor, rolling over to his stomach and resting his head on his hand. "What're you doing?" he asked curiously. Raphael threw up his hands in a defeated manner and waked back to the couch in front of the television.

I turned back to my computer. "I'm just doing some research on the chemical formulas and cycles that are present in the process of photosynthesis," I told him. After a few seconds, I heard Michelangelo rustle behind me.

"I'm going to watch TV," he mumbled. I shook my head as I listened to him walk out of the room and over to Raphael. But soon, the sounds of the two wrestling met my ears yet again. Raphael must have been more bored than usual that day. Michelangelo was entertained easily, and usually entertained Leonardo, Raphael, and I in turn, since we didn't have the attitude that amused as well as he did. I suddenly wished that Master Splinter hadn't gone off for the day to get supplies.

I finally gave up on my computer after trying three more times to get that page up, without prevail. After turning off my computer, I walked into our dojo to see what Leonardo was up to. On my way, I passed Raphael and Michelangelo, who were finally sitting still on the couch watching cartoons.

When I reached our dojo, I walked in and looked around. However, Leonardo was nowhere to be found. "Leo?" I called, though there was really nowhere for him to be concealed out of my view—the room was quite open. Unsurprisingly, I got no answer.

"Raph, Mikey, have you seen Leo?" I asked, coming out of the dojo. Michelangelo shook his head, his eyes glued to the animated koalas dancing around the television screen.

"I think he said that he was going for a walk in the tunnels," Raphael said. His eyes never left the screen either, but he wasn't watching with amusement. He had a scowl on his face that showed exactly how exciting he found a bunch of cuddly koala bears that looked like they needed to use the bathroom.

"Did he say when he would be back?" I asked, cringing inwardly. Raphael's lack of patience made me very wary of how many questions I asked him at once. And his attitude wouldn't be very much improved if he was getting fed up with daytime television as well. However, a sense of accomplishment welled inside of me when he opened his mouth to answer me without even batting an eye.

"No."

Well, I _thought_ it was an accomplishment.

"I'm going to look for him," I said, hoping to imply that someone should go with me and help. At least it would get them out from in front of the television for more than thirty seconds.

"Okay," Raphael replied. I slumped my shoulders. Why do I even try?

Without another word, I headed out of the lair. Once I was out in the tunnels, I tried to decide which way to go first. I knew Leonardo wouldn't have gone far without any of us or Master Splinter with him. He was too responsible to take any unnecessary risks that would lead to some form of trouble. Usually, I would consider him uptight. Raphael would not put it so mildly. But right now, I praised him silently for his insistence to be cautious. It made my job a whole lot easier.

I randomly decided to go right first. The tunnels were darker as they went on, but neither I, nor my brothers and Master, were afraid of the shadows. They usually worked to our advantage when it came to remaining hidden from civilization. It wasn't until I got to a second tunnel that branched off to the left did I stop.

"Huh," I muttered to myself. I didn't remember coming across this tunnel before. Should I keep going straight, or go left? Then I got an idea. Maybe I wouldn't have to do either.

"Leo!" I called. I got no answer. Sighing, I continued to walk forward. But when I passed the left tunnel, something grabbed my arm, making my heart jolt.

Normally, I wouldn't have let this hand grip my arm for more than two seconds. I could have easily used my ninja training to shake myself free any other time, but this person seemed just as skilled as I as it forcefully pushed me into the wall of the tunnel and covered my mouth with their other hand. I was actually surprised at how gentle my attacker was. Any human would be too preoccupied with the shock of my appearance to worry about my own welfare. It wasn't until I managed to look into the eyes partially concealed by a blue mask did I realize that this was no human attacker.

Leonardo finally let go of my arm and put a green finger to his lips. I nodded to show that I understood. Only then did Leonardo take his hand away from my mouth. "What are you doing?" he whispered.

I gave him an incredulous look. He had just forced me into a creepy tunnel and shut me up as if a turtle-eating koala monster was hot on his heels, and yet he asks _me_ what I'm doing. I then broke up my own thoughts, deciding that I needed to stop watching cartoons. "I was looking for you," I whispered. "What are _you_ doing here?"

Leonardo darted his eyes around nervously, then looked at me again. "I was taking a walk, but then…" His voice trailed off as his eyes averted to something behind me in the main tunnel. I saw his eyes get wide before I saw a shadow pass over us.

Spinning around, I looked out of the tunnel to see what was behind us. And when I did, I almost wet myself. Looking back at me was a big, drooling, furry koala bear. And it looked hungry.

Go figure.

Leonardo had come up beside me at this point and took out his Katanas. We had only just started to carry our weapons with us. I however, had left my Bo staff in the lair. I could tell Leonardo was scared out of his mind, but he stood by my side bravely. I too took a defensive stance. Then, without warning, the seven-foot-tall koala let out an ear-splitting roar right in our faces. Man, its breath stunk.

When the monster stopped its hideous roar, Leonardo and I just stood there, frozen. Then we slowly turned our heads to each other, reaching a silent agreement. We snapped our heads back to the koala and took a huge breath.

"AAAAAAHHHH!" we screamed at the top of or lungs. Then we turned around and took off down the tunnel, not caring that it was taking us further from our home. It was probably better that way, since we weren't leading the monster to Raphael and Michelangelo. But we hardly had the time or the brain function to take those maters into consideration at that point.

"What is that thing?" I shouted to Leonardo as we ran. I could hear the thing pounding after us through the dark tunnel. I didn't even realize that the tunnel got brighter the further we ran through. Leonardo's reply was shouted to me also.

"A big, furry, scary monster!" My, he was an observant one.

"Was it here before?" I asked him.

"Not that I know of, until it started chasing me all over the sewers."

Wonderful. A huge koala had materialized out of an empty beer can and has been living in our portion of the sewers for approximately twenty minutes. How about that.

After running for a while longer, I saw a light further down the tunnel. That didn't make sense to me, because I knew that the sewer didn't lead to anything outside without going up. But nevertheless, Leonardo and I sped up as we neared the end of the tunnel, hoping to find a way to loose the monster that was now breathing down our necks. I desperately wished at that moment that I had a tictac I could give it.

Once Leonardo and I reached the light, we skidded to a stop. Before us was a large room with wooden floors and two nets hanging from the ceiling. But it wasn't the bad decorating that stopped us in our tracks. It was what—or, who—was contained in the nets.

Michelangelo and Raphael looked down at us fearfully from their individual nets. They were no more than three feet apart, but the distance mattered little since they couldn't move much in the ropes anyways. With a start, I turned around, expecting the huge koala to be standing over us with a fork and bib, waiting to devour us. But the creature was no longer there.

"Donny," Michelangelo said in a soft, but high voice, making me turn back around. The look on of fear and helplessness on his face made almost brought tears to my eyes. "Get us out of here."

"We will Mikey," I assured my little brother. I turned to Leonardo, who sheathed one of his swords. I knew that he was constructing a plan on how to get up to our captive brothers.

We had no sooner taken two steps closer to the nets when something moved forward from the shadows in the back of the room. As it stepped into the light, I saw that it was our koala friend. I hoped that it had lost its appetite.

"Foooooooood," the monster said. How ironic. I had a feeling that thing's appetite hadn't faded at all.

"You'd better get use to the number four combo meal, Fuzz Ball," Leonardo said confidently. He then flipped right over the monster's head and hooked his fingers into the bottom of Michelangelo's net. After instructing Michelangelo to move his feet out of the way, Leonardo sliced the bottom ropes until a hole was made. Then, Michelangelo slipped through easily and landed right behind the koala monster.

"Whew, I'm saved!" Michelangelo said. But he instantly shut his mouth when the monster turned around to him. "Uh… he, he… AH!" Michelangelo ducked and slid underneath the monster's legs and came to a stop beside my feet. I pulled him up and stood protectively in front of him. By then, Leonardo had freed Raphael and had made their way to my side as well.

"Wait!" Michelangelo squealed. My brothers and I turned to him curiously. "Maybe he's friendly," he said defensively.

The monster answered with another deafening roar, making all of us flinch. Then it began to advance on us.

"Sure Mikey," Raphael said as we all backed up. "You can be the first to pet him,"

We all kept backing away from the beast until we were pressed against the wall. _Wait a minute_, I thought. _A wall?_ There should have been a tunnel behind us. It was how Leonardo and I entered in the first place. But, turning around, I saw that the tunnel was no longer there, only solid concrete. We were trapped.

"Donny," I heard Leonardo say. But, as I looked at him, he was only shaking beside me.

"What?" I asked. I got no answer. Well, fine, be that way.

"_Donny_." Okay, that was weird. Leonardo's lips didn't even move. Before I knew it, everything started to get hazy. I could barely see the monster that was two feet in front of me. And then, too my horror, it slowly changed form. Now it looked like Leonardo! But the only way I could tell that was by the flash of blue and how it got considerably smaller, because at that time blackness was overwhelming me. And so was fear as the ex-koala bear slowly lowered its jaws closer me.

X x X x X x X

"DONNY!"

Donatello popped his eyes open and screamed, "No, don't eat me!"

Leonardo, Raphael, and Michelangelo looked down at him questioningly, and then exchanged glances. "Why would we eat you?" Leonardo asked.

Donatello lifted his head, panting. "There was you, and we were running… a big koala tried to eat us… they got Mikey and Raph…" He stopped there, and then looked confused himself as he noticed his surroundings. He was sitting at his computer desk. When Donatello looked up, he saw that a screen about photosynthesis had come up on his computer.

Michelangelo tilted his head to one side. Donatello could practically see the wheels turning inside his brother's eight-year-old brain. "You need to stop watching cartoons, dude," Michelangelo finally said.

Donatello's mouth parted slightly, and then he sighed dejectedly. "Yes," he muttered, turning back to his computer. "Yes, I do."

X x X x X x X

A/N: This is my first story ever on this site! Thanks for reading, and please give me a reply. I would really love to hear from you.


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